The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through much of Central and Southeastern Europe, originating in the Black Forest and flowing into the Black Sea. Its longest headstream Breg rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, while the river carries its name from its source confluence in Donaueschingen onwards.
It originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg. The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,730 km (1,700 mi), passing through four capital cities – Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade – and ends into the Black Sea through the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
The Danube river is a costant presence in the novel The Wallenberg Dossier. The author refers to the river in various parts of the novel, particularly intense being the romantic moments between Wallenberg and Mira by the banks of the river and at night in a rooftop looking over to the river. The Danube is also used by the author in some very well-know poetical descriptions in which he associates the lightness and detachment of Wallenberg and Mira to the watery boundaries of the city and in which he describes the Danube under the red, intense sky of Budapest immersed in melancholy.
